A Rose For Emily and Other Short Stories
What is the problem with Miss Emily’s house and how do the townspeople solve the problem?
?
?
The problem with the house is the smell. The smell was solved with a sprinkling of lime.
So the next night, after midnight, four men crossed Miss Emily's lawn and slunk about the house like burglars, sniffing along the base of the brickwork and at the cellar openings while one of them performed a regular sowing motion with his hand out of a sack slung from his shoulder. They broke open the cellar door and sprinkled lime there, and in all the outbuildings. As they recrossed the lawn, a window that had been dark was lighted and Miss Emily sat in it, the light behind her, and her upright torso motionless as that of an idol. They crept quietly across the lawn and into the shadow of
the locusts that lined the street. After a week or two the smell went away.
A Rose for Miss Emily